REVIEW: Ben Gook, Mess + Noise Magazine, Issue #12 April 2007
Chris Smith
Bad Orchestra CD
(Death Valley Records)

Every time Chris Smith's Bad Orchestra is played, a warehouse somewhere seems to rumble into atavistic life. As if the post-industrial era were rolling backwards, as if all the factory workers took down the art school paintings now adorning walls, & all mechanics reclaimed their tools -and everyone started playing experimental music together, jacking their instruments into room sized amps, swinging bass guitars from the ceiling,like that scene in Dancer in the Dark where Bjork kicks out the metallic jams.

At 30 minutes long, Bad Orchestra is a brief shot of a record. But it's presence,like it's sound is large. The songs, while distinct and individually crafted, bleed together – they share a texture, a mood and a disposition that is evidently the work of one, clear-minded musician. Smith, primarily, is a guitarist and that's the biggest imprint one leaves this with -the sound of guitars, sometimes echoing, sometimes entwined, often alone.

REVIEW: via www.thebrokenface.blogspot.com (Sweden) by Musician, Label Owner etc, etc, Mats Gustafsson
Chris Smith
Bad Orchestra CD
(Death Valley Records)

I’ve been a fan of Australian guitarist Chris Smith ever since hearing his magical but neglected masterpiece Cabin Fever album in the late ‘90s. It consists of fractured mini-symphonies that walks the tightrope between droning noise and manipulated semi-pop with stunning ease. It still stands out as an album on par with New Zealand soundsmith Alastair Galbraith’s finest work.

It’s been a while since we last heard from Smith but when he gets back he does so in an absolutely remarkable way. Bad Orchestra is an album that adds a strong song-based element but without losing the sense of aural claustrophobia that comes wrapped around every dark ambient tone. Imagine a mix of Galbraith’s abstract drone noise pieces and astral ghost fog, The Dead C's abstruse ambient noise and thick streaks of fluttering feedback, meandering Morricone-like sound sculptures recalling the open vistas of the never-ending outback and soaring Neil Young-inspired country/blues jams and you’re in the right confusing ballpark. Add to all this the occasional lilting piano ballad and organ snippets and we got ourselves an equally perplexing and inspiring album.

Smith himself describes his influences as “the razor-fine line separating yourself from the babbling hobo you cross the road to avoid. Post- Roman Catholicism/LSD, the Devil and the deep blue sea.” If that description sounds even remotely interesting you owe it yourself to check out one of this time’s unknown legends.

REVIEW: The Herald-Sun (Melbourne’s No.1 Newspaper) 10 Sept 2006
BORED!
Self-Titled, Take It Out On You & More! CD
(Afterburn Records)
• 3.5 stars

In short: Revisit the magic of a brilliant Australian band.
GOOD, hard rock ‘n’ roll rarely sounds as wild as the heavy fuzz-filled music performed by the Australian rock outfit Bored!
Featuring remastered versions of the band’s early work, including its 1988 debut EP, 1990’s Take It Out on You mini-LP & a number of cool cover tracks, the recording captures the awesome energy of this great Melbourne four-piece.
What we have here is the best in hard, distorted guitar-edged punk rock ‘n’ roll. The Bored! brand of music takes its cue from the work of MC5 & The Stooges, but takes the intensity up to another, exciting level.
What makes this recording essential listening is its six awesome cover tunes. The best of these include the rendition of the Black Sabbath classic Iron Man, Lobby Lloyde’s Human Being & a slamming version of Sonic Reducer by The Dead Boys.

DAVID FLAHERTY

The Herald-Sun Star System
• 5 stars
Classic, must for every collection
• 4 stars
Excellent, tough to prise out of the CD player
• 3 stars
Good, worth the money & a worthy addition
• 2 stars
OK, but only if you’re a real fan
• 1 star
Best used as a drinks coaster

REVIEW: Unbelievably Bad Fanzine Issue #4 Nov 2006
BORED!
Self-Titled, Take It Out On You & More! CD
(Afterburn Records)

WARNING : Steer clear if you don't like Riffs ! Dave Thomas's finesse-less mob of flannelette-wearing Geelong rockers Bored! show off the nice new Lindsay Gravina remastering job that's been applied to their unkempt self-titled EP from '88 and the riff-a-riffic Take it Out on You mini-LP from '90. Throw in a few rarites and a ten page booklet and the money should be practically falling out of your wallet. The liner notes include excerpts from a European Tour Diary penned by one time Bored! bassist Tim Hemensley (R.I.P.) first published in the very great Melbourne zine Resistant Harmony whose editor Scotti (along with pal Bevan) runs Afterburn Records who put this CD out. Anytime is a good time to listen to classic Bored! tunes like 'Little Suzie' , 'Motherfuckin' Motherfucker' and 'Mr 10%', but as the years go by they just seem to grow in vitality. Seems only a matter of time before Bored! undergo the typical renaissance when they posthumously get all the respect they've been owed for eighteen years. A few more decent reissues like this and the ARIA hall of fame awaits.

REVIEW:
LIMES
Tarantula! CD
(Death Valley Records)

The people of Memphis have rhythm. There is no denying it. Not in my reviews anyway. Admittedly, I am predisposed to liking any album called, simply, Tarantula! With a big picture of…wait…a –you guessed it – tarantula on the front.
Tarantula! is a bizarre, 11-track trip through lo-fi wonderland. Abandoning any pretext of showiness or pretense, Limes instead play to their strengths – 70’s blues guitar & King Missile-esque low, almost spoken vocals.
It would be easy for Tarantula! to backfire, growing monotonous after just one song. Limes found their groove early & have stuck to it throughout the album, deciding against diversity in favour of sticking to their Creedence Clearwater Revival-on-prozac style on every track. Fortunately, Tarantula! is so different from anything else released lately & so easy to listen to that any abrupt change in direction would destroy the ambience completely. That ambience is all-important. One of the reasons that Tarantula! works as an album is that the feel is so consistent, without any sudden moves to jar the listener out of the mood.
That isn’t to say that this is a chill-out album. Shawn Cripps, the man behind Limes, has a finely tuned, if a little skewed, sense of the world around him, highlighted on songs like North Dakoda: They got your picture hanging up behind the bar / The general consensus is you’re gonna go far / but people round here are starting to wonder / are you ever coming back to North Dakota?
Of course, given that he’s released an album called Tarantula! it’s no surprise when some songs take a turn towards the bizarre. case in point: Old Evil River. The guitar work is worthy of B.B. King, but as far as we know, King never wrote a song about a river laughing at him. Weird.

SIMON SMITHSON